Brown-haired agile girl, the sun that forms the fruits,
Ripens the wheat and coils the seaweed
Has made your beautiful body, your shining eyes
And your mouth that has the smile of water.

A black and anguised sun rolls you in the threads
Of your long black hair when you open your arms.
You play in the sun as playing in a tidal river
That leaves two dark pools in your eyes.

Brown-haired agile girl, nothing from you comes to me.
All of you go away from me as if from the noon.
You are the delirious youth of bee,
The drunkenness of the wave, the force of the ear of wheat.

My somber hearts searches for you, nevertheless,
And I love your beautiful body, your voice soft and free.
Sweet and sure brown-haired butterfly,
Like the fields of wheat, the sun, the poppy and the water.

Pablo Neruda

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, (1924)

POEM 19

Girl lithe and tawny, the sun that forms
the fruits, that plumps the grains, that curls seaweeds
filled your body with joy, and your luminous eyes
and your mouth that has the smile of the water.

A black yearning sun is braided into the strands
of your black mane, when you stretch your arms.
You play with the sun as with a little brook
and it leaves two dark pools in your eyes.

Girl lithe and tawny, nothing draws me towards you.
Everything bears me farther away, as though you were noon.
You are the frenzied youth of the bee,
the drunkenness of the wave, the power of the wheat-ear.

My somber heart searches for you, nevertheless,
and I love your joyful body, your slender and flowing voice.
Dark butterfly, sweet and definitive
like the wheat-field and the sun, the poppy and the water.